Turkey Tour 2000
Eat My Dust
Marguerite (my navigator) and I were both looking forward to the Turkey Tour this year. After a somewhat disastrous chairing of the Halloween Rally a month prior, we were questioning our understanding of the basic instructions. The evening arrived as chilly but crisply bright and clear. We lined up among some stiff competition: Dave and Stacy Wooley who finished very well in the Bunny Run, Art Swartz and Paul Krasko who finished very well in the Halloween Rally, Dan and Kerri Pinto, Bob Kleinman and Eddie Claridge, the Johnstons and the Mays, teams who consistently finish near the top.
Within the first 10 minutes we (car #5) were on the tail of Art and Paul (car #4) eating their dust, literally. Art's autocross skills quickly became apparent on the rolling, winding roads. He lost us twice. The only reason we caught up the first time was from the glare of his reverse lights illuminating "turkeys." Marguerite weebled left and right in her seat and occasionally had her head thrown into her lap (which she cursed me for) as I slammed on the brakes to catch a few more signs.
At that point until the finish we were totally and utterly alone. This rally the ladies added a new dimension to our rallying: radio. Honestly, we did start with the radio on, but somewhere around 1 hour and 15 minutes our ears popped from the altitude and broadcast civilization became a faded memory. We decided right then and there that our ability to enjoy background music while processing instructions, evaluating road conditions while monitoring mileage and time surely must be a sign of something big. We were very pleased. About 4 chewy chocolate chip cookies later we glided into the checkpoint as Art and Paul were checking out. We ate his dust for the final tour to Applebees, where we swapped stories over beer, quesadillas and brownies a la mode. It was a welcome end to a turbulent season.
Valerie Christou